Paeonia Lactiflora, belonging to ranunculaceous paeonioideae hutch perennial herbaceous plant, and its dried roots can be used as medicine. Two kinds of peonies are recorded in Chinese Pharmacopoeia edition 2010, one of which is Radix Paeoniae Alba, which is dried root of Paeoniae Lactiflora Pall, and the other one is Radix Paeoniae Rubra, which is dried root of Paeonia Veitchii Lynch. A plurality of traditional Chinese medicinal preparations containing Paeonia Lactiflora appear on the market at the present time, such as anti-cerebral-thrombosis tablet, brain-benefiting and rehabilitation capsule, paralysis treating tablet, resurrecting pill, collateral activating pill and the like, which are mainly used for treating cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, neuralgia, hypertension, abortion, dysmenorrhea, etc. Modern chemical research shows that: the peony mainly consists of paeoniflorin, albiflorin, oxypaeoniflorin, benzoylpaeoniflorin and other components. Owing to high content of paeoniflorin in the medicinal material, and its easy comparatively availability of the pure product, there are more reports and researches on the paeoniflorin. The paeoniflorin has activities of relieving the pain, calming, protecting the liver, resisting inflammation, regulating immune, dilating blood vessels, improving learning and memorizing behaviors and the like, and can be used for treating rheumatoid arthritis, hepatitis, senile diseases, etc. For a long time, most studies regard that the paeoniflorin, as a major active ingredient of the peony, can be taken as an index to measure the peony-containing medicine and to evaluate quality performance of the medicine depending on its content.
Albiflorin belongs to monoterpenoid compounds, the molecular formula is C23H28O11, molecular weight is 480.46 and molecular structure is showed as FORMULA (I); paeoniflorin belongs to monoterpenoid compounds, the molecular formula is C23H28O11, molecular weight is 480.46 and molecular structure is showed as FORMULA (II).

In recent years, modern pharmacological research found that albiflorin has functions of relieving the pain, calming and resisting convulsion, as well as function on immune system, smooth muscle, resisting inflammation and pathogenic microorganism and protecting the liver. Clinically, the albiflorin is mainly used for resisting epilepsy, relieving the pain, drug rehabilitation, reliving vertigo, treating rheumatoid arthritis, bacillary dysentery and enteritis, viral hepatitis and senile diseases, resisting barium sulfate flocculation and dissolving mucus.
Therefore, the research on albiflorin is increasing with more and more attentions. For example, a patent for invention of 200510045840.0 discloses a composition extracted and separated from radix paeoniae alba (paeonia iactifora pall), which contains active compounds paeoniflorin and albiflorin, wherein the total content of these two components is 50-95%, and the ratio of paeoniflorin to albiflorin in the composition is at 1: 10-10:1. The composition is used for preparing medicines for treating leukopenia, lower platelet and heme globin caused by various reasons. For another example, a patent for invention of 200710132810.2 discloses a pharmaceutical composition containing paeoniflorin and albiflorin, wherein the ratio of paeoniflorin to albiflorin in the composition is at 10: 1-50:1. This composition can be used for preventing and treating cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. However, the above-mentioned researches are just limited in study on pharmacological effects of paeoniflorin and albiflorin, and theri product is composition of the paeoniflorin and albiflorin.
Due to chemical properties of the albiflorin, it is difficult to prepare high purity albiflorin. There is no simple and convenient technique in the existing research to prepare high purity albiflorin with low cost and large scale. For example, a patent for invention of 200910100680.3 discloses a method for preparing albiflorin by simulated moving bed chromatography (SMBC). This method used extract of total glucosides of paeonia as raw material and prepares the albiflorin to prepare albiflorin by SMBC, wherein. immobile phase of SMBC is C18 silica gel, and mobile phase is mixed solution of methanol or acetonitrile and water, formic acid and isopropyl alcohol. In the mixed solution, in volume percentage, the methanol or acetonitrile counts for 10-50%, the water counts for 50-90%, the formic acid counts for 0-1% and the isopropyl alcohol counts for 0-2%, and total volume percentage of the various components is 100%. The purity of the albiflorin prepared by this method can be greater than 90%, but it is not suitable for mass production, in consideration of a great amount of expense on reverse phase silica gel (RP-C18), complex procedure, strict condition control and its subsequent cost.
Therefore, there is no such a technique which can meet the need of industrial production and high-purity products of paeoniflorin and albiflorin simultaneously.